Free Showdown On the Hogback (1991) by Louis L'amour Page A

like the turn things had taken.
    Colonel Loren Keith had from the beginning planned on striking fast and wiping out the opposition. It would be merely another unsolved mystery of the West.
    Kedrick resolved to keep an eye on the man and be prepared for anything.
    He returned to the St. James and to bed. He awakened early and was surprised to see Keith mounted and riding out of town at daybreak. With a bound he was out of bed and dressing. Whatever Keith had in mind, he meant to know. Swiftly, he descended the stairs and went to the livery stable. Mounted, he headed out of town, found Keith's tracks with ease, and followed them. Keith had turned off the trail and headed west and slightly north, but after a few miles, Kedrick lost the trail and took a wide swing to try and cut it again, but Keith had vanished somewhere in the vicinity of Largo Canyon.
    Returning to the hotel, he found a message from Bob McLennon. He and Slagle would meet with Burwick and Kedrick at Chimney Rock at three in the afternoon on Wednesday. It was now Monday, and a whole day lay between.
    Yet during the remainder of Monday he saw nothing of Dornie Shaw, although Laredo Shad appeared a couple of times and then vanished into one of the saloons.
    At midnight the door of his room opened slowly and Tom Kedrick sat tip, gun in hand. It was Laredo Shad.
    "Somethin's up," he said, dropping on the bed, "an' she looks mighty peculiar. Couple of hours ago Poinsett an' Goff showed up an' said they had quit. No fightin' here, so they were pullin' out for Durango. About a half hour later they mounted up an' took out."
    "What's peculiar about that?" Kedrick inquired, building a smoke. "That's in line with Burwick's talk with me. his "Yeah," Shad replied dryly, "but both of them came in here with a good deal of gear. They lost their packhorses somewheres and went out only with what they could carry on the one horse, and durned little of that."
    "What about Fessenden?"
    "Ain't seen him."
    "Any of the others gone?"
    "Clauson is. At least, he ain't around in sight. I ain't seen him since morning."
    That left Shaw, who had been around little himself, and Fessenden, if he was still in town. Despite himself, Kedrick was disturbed, but if Burwick was getting rid of his warriors it was a good sign. Probably he, Tom Kedrick, was getting too suspicious.
    Nothing, Shad said, had been said to him about quitting.
    "In fact," he said dryly "... The Mixus boys pulled in this morning, an' they went right to Burwick."
    "Who are they?"
    "Killers. Drygulchers, mostly. Bean an'
    Abe Mixus. They were in that Sandoval affair.
    Couple of men died awful opportune in that affair, an' come to think of it, Burwick was around.
    Fact is, that was where I met him."
    "Were you in that?"
    "Uh-uh. I was in town, though, an' had me a run-in with Roy Gangle. Roy was a mighty tough ranny who'd been ramrod . In' a big spread down thataway, an' when he got into the war he went bad, plumb bad. We'd had trouble over a steer, an' he braced me. He was a mite slow."
    It made no sense-gunmen leaving, but others arriving. (n course, the Mixus boys could have been spoken to before the change of plans. That must be it. He suggested as much to Laredo, and the Texan nodded dubiously.
    "Maybe. I don't trust that hombre none. Your man Gunter is in over his head, Keith, well, he's all around bad when it comes to that, but neither of them can hold a candle to that Burwick."
    Study the situation as he would, Tom Kedrick could see no answer to it, and the fact remained that they were to meet Slagle and McLennon for a peace conference. Out of that, anything might come, and he had no real cause to distrust Burwick.
    Morning was bright and clear, with the sun promising a hot day. Yet it was still cool when Kedrick appeared on the street and crossed to the little restaurant where he ate in silence. He was on his second cup of coffee when Connie came in.
    Her face brightened with a smile as she saw him, and she came over to